Belongs to You
by Bimadabomi
Summary: Another relationship affected by the arrival of April.


_A slightly different take on the affects of April._

It had been exactly a week, Luke noted. Lorelai had known about April for exactly one week to the day.

A week ago at this time, she had been mad. And hurt, clearly hurt, he recalled. He could see it in her expression as they argued that night, and he hated himself for being the idiot that caused her pain. Especially when it had caused him pain, too, to not talk to the one person who was always there for him about the biggest thing that had ever happened to him. He ended up hurting them _both_ by hiding it.

She had yelled that night. Something about her telling him about Erik Estrada and him not telling her _anything _in return. Then she moved on to yelling at herself, while still yelling at him. It broke his heart to hear her question why he didn't tell her, questioning what _she_ had done wrong to make him not trust her when he was the one who had done everything wrong, he knew. She had asked why he didn't trust her with this. Why he didn't need her help or need her. And then she proceeded to beat herself up for not noticing that something had been on Luke's mind for the past months. She had accused herself of being too wrapped up in reconciling with Rory and getting too wrapped up with the holidays to notice Luke.

She had yelled and she had cried and she had been hurt. But he eventually calmed her down, after leaving her to have a couple hours alone to collect her thoughts, and when he returned he had begged her to talk to him, even though he hadn't talked to her, as she had icily pointed out. And she had talked to him. She had told him she was going to put the hurt aside and talk to him about his daughter, because she wanted to be there for him and this was about him and not her. Which made him feel even more guilty and horrible.

She had been somewhat distant at first, about everything that wasn't about April. She would talk to Luke about April, encourage him with his attempts to be a part of April's life, but he noticed that she stayed much closer to her side of the bed than usual and chatted a little less when she came into the diner for coffee. But as the week went on, she chatted while Luke filled her coffee and hung around after he had given her her to-go cup, and curled up into his side when she fell asleep at night again.

And now it was one week after Lorelai found out about April, when Rory appeared in the diner nervously. Lorelai had said she wouldn't tell Rory anything about April until Luke wanted to tell her, but Luke assured her that it would be better for Lorelai to tell Rory the news herself. And when she appeared in the diner on Saturday night, Luke knew that Rory knew.

"Hi Luke," she greeted softly, closing the door behind her and taking in her surroundings, mentally cataloguing how busy he was and if it was a good time to talk to him.

"Hi, Rory," he replied, carefully choosing his words. She sat down at the counter and fidgeted nervously. "Coffee?" he finally asked. Rory nodded eagerly, glad for the distraction.

"Yes, please," she accepted the offer. He got her a cup and filled it quickly while wondering why, exactly, she was there. She clearly knew about April, and she was there. She was there, she knew about April, and she was nervous on top of it all.

"So," Luke said, desperate to make the heavy silence over them go away, "How's school?"

Rory seemed to momentarily forget the awkwardness and her eyes lit up. "Oh, it's great," she said happily. "It's so good to be back, you know? And I'm lucky because I even got back on the paper and everything, I really could have messed that up. I probably could have been editor this year, too, if I hadn't taken the time off. But there's always next year, if I can kick Paris out of the job," she chuckled. "It's just, it feels so right being there. I don't know what I was thinking last semester."

Luke nodded, happy to see Rory back on track and clearly happy with her decisions. He momentarily remembered when she had shown up at the dinner in the summer, sitting there on the stool looking miserable. That wasn't her. This was the Rory he knew, and he was glad she was back.

"Good, that's good," he said sincerely, looking around the diner to see if anyone needed his attention. "I'm glad you're happy."

She smiled warmly. "Thanks," she said softly, drawing out the word for a bit longer then necessary as the reason why she was there suddenly seemed to seep back into her mind. "So," she added. "How are… things with you?" she asked carefully.

For the life of him, Luke couldn't figure out what Rory was trying to do. If she was trying to act like she didn't know about April or if she just didn't know how to approach it. And why was she there, approaching it, anyway? Was she there to tell him that he and his newfound baggage should stay away from her mother? He knew that Rory had once gone to her father and told him to stay away from her mother. Maybe she was prepared to look out for her mother's best interests again. Or was she there to talk to him about April? Hear him say for himself that it was true?

"Things with me are… they're…" he sighed and looked at Rory, who suddenly smiled sympathetically.

"They're a mess?" Rory guessed.

"Yeah," Luke exhaled, relieved that she wasn't going to make him explain the whole situation to her. "They are. Confusing."

Rory nodded knowingly. "I can imagine. Mom told me about… April? That's her name, right?"

Luke nodded, impressed that Lorelai had passed April's name on to Rory and that Rory had retained it.

"That's her name," Luke confirmed. "April."

"It's pretty," Rory decided, thoughtful expression on her brow. "Anyway, Mom told me about her and, well, I can imagine how things are for you right now..."

For the first time, Luke wanted to press Rory for information on Lorelai. Ask her if Lorelai was really doing okay with everything, or if that was just a front she was putting on for Luke. If she had issues and worries that she was telling Rory and not telling him. But he wouldn't do that to Rory, put her in the middle. He'd never done that, and he wouldn't now.

"… so you've known for a while, I guess, so it's not really as new to you as it is to me, but still, it's big," Rory finished, and Luke realized he'd lost track of what she was saying somewhere along the line.

"Yeah, it definitely is," he agreed. He wasn't really sure how to get into this with Rory. What was he supposed to say to her? Was he supposed to talk to her about the whole situation, or was he supposed to shield her from it? And he was still wondering what she wanted from this conversation. "Even though it's been a while, it's still hard to wrap my mind around it, you know? Especially since… well, I don't know what my role in her life is going to be."

Rory nodded, and by the way she looked down quickly, Luke knew that Lorelai had filled her in on how April didn't seem to have any interest in him being a part of her life.

"I'm sorry, Luke," Rory said, looking down at her coffee cup and running her finger around the rim, making her look remarkably like Lorelai in the moment. "This whole situation is so unfair."

"It's okay," he said, though he really didn't think it was. "It'll work out. I hope."

"Yeah," Rory smiled at him and looked up from her cup. "It will. You'll have a daughter, that's a good thing. You're a… you'll be a… well, she's lucky to have you as a father."

"I hope so."

"So, I came here to…" Rory fidgeted nervously and reached into her pocket for something as she looked around. "Is this a bad time, are you too busy?" she asked suddenly.

Luke looked around pointedly at the few customers, and Rory nodded and laughed nervously. "Right. Well… I just thought I should give you this. Back," she added, pulling her hand out of her coat pocket to reveal the box Luke had given her on her birthday. He took it carefully and peeked inside just to make sure she was really giving him what he thought she was, and not just the box.

"Rory…" Luke began, unsure of what exactly was going on, but having a pretty good idea of her reasoning behind returning the box, complete with necklace, to him.

"It's okay," Rory said quickly. "It's a beautiful necklace, and I'm so touched that you wanted to give it to me," Rory told him. "But it's your mother's and you have a daughter now, so it should go to her. I mean, not right away, since she's only twelve and you barely know her… but one day. She might like it by thirteen. Definitely by sixteen."

"Rory," Luke began again. "I gave this to I _you /I _."

"I know," she said, looking down at her hands that were folded on her lap. "But that was before you knew that you had a daughter of your own. You might not have chosen to give it to _me_ if you had known that then."

Luke looked down at the necklace in his hand and wondered what he was supposed to say to his future stepdaughter. He wasn't big on words, and he didn't like having to deal with situations like this, but he knew he had better find the part of him that could express his emotions pretty soon, because the serious look on Rory's face was killing him. He quickly moved around the counter and stood by the stool next to Rory.

"I still want you to have this," he told her, placing the box back on the counter in front of her, and she looked up at him surprised and a little unsure. She turned on her stool to face him.

"Really?" she asked with a raise of her eyebrows.

"Really," he told her. "I wanted you to have this then, and I want you to have it now. Knowing about April makes no difference."

"But you might regret it one day," she protested. "You don't _know_ April yet, you know me more than you know her. But once you know her, years from now, you might wish you had this to give to her. To your daughter."

He shook his head. "Rory, this belongs to you."

She looked up at him again, and he noticed tears in her eyes. He'd made her cry. How had he made her cry?

"Are you sure?" she asked meekly. "You should think about it. It was your mother's."

"I'm sure," he assured her. "April may be mine biologically and all that, but that doesn't change how important you are to me."

Rory looked up at him and smiled happily, recalling the apparently unfounded jealousy she had felt when she found out about April's existence. "Okay. Good. I'm glad."

"I know that …" Luke sighed, trying to figure out what to say. "I know I'm not your father, but you're still very important to me. I've known you for a long time," he recalled, "and I've watched you grow up. And there's no one in this world that I would be more proud to have as my stepdaughter and as a part of my family."

She was touched, and she looked up at him, shyly meeting his eyes quickly before looking away. "Thank you. You're sure?" she asked, looking at the box. "You're sure you don't want to give this to your daughter?"

"I _am_ giving it to her," he told her quietly, so quietly that he wasn't sure she had heard his words. But she jumped up and threw her arms around him a moment later and he knew that she had.

"Thanks, Luke," she said, pulling away quickly, knowing how he felt about hugs most of the time. "You have no idea how much you giving this necklace to me means." She paused momentarily. "Can you put it on for me?" she asked, holding the box out to him before turning around, sweeping her hair out of the way in the process.

He gently put the necklace around her neck and fastened the clasp. "All set."

She let her hair go and smoothed it back into place as she turned around, facing him with a grin. "Thank you."

"My pleasure."

She sat back down on the stool with her nervousness gone now that the conversation she had been dreading was over. "So," she began as Luke returned to his space behind the counter. "I never got to tell you how happy I am for you and Mom. I mean, before, when you told me, I just kind of walked out of here and… well I never said that I'm so happy for you two."

"Thanks," Luke said, grabbing the coffee pot to refill coffee of customers at the counter. "I wish I hadn't told you that way," he added. "I shouldn't have told you. Your mother should have told you."

Rory shrugged. "It was a weird time. You telling me was fine." She watched Luke place the coffee pot back behind the counter and pick up the plates of two customers who had just vacated their seats. "She said you guys haven't set a date yet, you know, because of…" she laughed nervously, "well, everything."

"Nope," Luke said, wiping down the area he had just cleared. "No date yet."

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"You had to deal with a lot because of me and my choices and everything between me and Mom. I mean, she said…" Rory shrugged, "she said she really needed you when I was gone and depended on you a lot. And I'm sorry you had to deal with emotional Lorelai Gilmore a lot more than usual because of my choices," she finished, taking a breath and offering him a shaky smile.

"It's okay, Rory," Luke said, stopping his cleaning up to look at her. "You needed to make those choices and go through that. And I wouldn't think twice before helping her."

Rory nodded and Luke moved into the kitchen for a brief moment. "She wants to do the same, you know," she added when he approached the counter again.

"What?" Luke looked up at Rory, confused.

"She wants to help you. That's why she got so upset that you didn't tell her about April right away. She wants to be able to be there for you."

Luke nodded uncomfortably. "I know," he admitted.

"She's okay," Rory told him, seeming to know what he was wondering. "She really is. She's not, you know… all upset and horrified behind your back." Luke looked relieved. "We just want to make this easier for you in any way we can."

Luke looked at the girl sitting before him. She was so grown up. She wasn't the ten year-old girl that he had met, hair disarray, and feathered angel's wings on her back, inviting him to a caterpillar's funeral with tear-stained cheeks. She was now a grown up, mature, young woman with a caffeine addiction that she undoubtedly got from her mother. And now she was sitting there, basically telling him that even though he had ended up hurting her mother and making all of their lives-- their family-- more complex and confusing by bringing a twelve year-old girl into it, she was okay with that.

"I know. And I appreciate that," he told her. Ready to return to a more normal conversation, he added, "Are you going home tonight?" She looked up and shrugged.

"I don't know. I guess so. Hadn't really thought about it when I came down here. Why?"

"Just wondering."

"Did you want to talk to Mom or something? Because if so, I don't have to come home. I know things have been tense for you guys lately and I don't want to—"

"Rory, relax," Luke couldn't help but chuckle. "Your mother and I are fine. She'd love to see you. Come home."

Rory nodded. "Okay. Maybe we can all watch a movie or something."

"Sounds good," Luke agreed with a smile, before taking off across the diner to wipe down another recently vacated table.

Rory watched him and wondered, momentarily, if April would ever join them for movie nights. If he would ever get a chance to be a part of April's life. If April would let him in. She hoped she would. Because growing up without a father around, she knew that anyone would be lucky to have a father like Luke.

Rory remembered the first few times she came into the diner with her mother. She had been amused by Luke, in that little girl way. She had laughed when he kicked Kirk out when they were there for breakfast, she had laughed when he yelled at Taylor when they came in for dinner, and she had giggled under her breath every time he said 'jeez.' Even though he was gruff and grumpy, she could see that there was something more to Luke from the way he had humored her about the caterpillar's funeral and how he seemed to soften when talking to her. And it hadn't taken Rory long before she noticed that her mother looked at Luke in a way that she didn't usually look at men, trusted Luke in a way that she didn't usually trust men-- or anyone, for that matter. Rory learned that Luke would come when the shower or the sink or the water heater was broken and that he would cheer her mother up when she was sad—even if it was just by accident because he dropped a plate.

He was the one that came to help her mother when she broke her leg, and he was the one that helped her by bringing her mashed potatoes when she was sick and didn't want to eat anything else.

And Rory was determined that in return, they would be the ones that would help _him_ after he found out he had a twelve year-old daughter.


End file.
